George Yang, Author at Goody Feed

If you’ve been on Facebook in the last few days, you’d have come across something known as “needles in strawberries”. Recently, it has been more than just strawberries: there has been reports of needles in bananas and apples as well, but these are isolated cases that could not be verified yet. So, what’s the needles-filled strawberries all about, and is Singapore affected? How it Started Earlier this month, there were reports of needles in strawberries Australia. The first reported case happened to Brisbane tradesman Hoani Hearne, who was taken to a hospital after swallowing a needle in a strawberry. Now, if that doesn’t sound scary enough, imagine biting hard into one of these. Image: gladstoneobserver.com.au That’s enough to send fear all over the country. With more reports streaming in, it turned out that it’s not an isolated case but a deliberate sabotage effort by someone or some people. What Needles are they? The needles hidden in the fruit are those sewing ones, like this: Image: Roland IJdema / Shutterstock.com Suffice to say, swallowing it would cause severe injuries, like throat, mouth, gullet, stomach or intestinal injuries. How Bad is it Now? While it is contained within Australia, the number of cases has increased: as of now, there are 26 reported cases spreading across six states. Most cases (eight of them) occurred in New South Wales. Who’s Responsible for It? As mentioned earlier, the culprit, or culprits, are not found yet. Authorities in Australia are still investigating, and people responsible could be jailed up to 10 years. A SGD$99K reward has set aside by the authorities in Queenland for anyone who has information about the culprit that could lead to an arrest. A Copycat Act Has Been Found A 62-year-old woman was found putting a needle into a banana in Queensland, and according reports, it was a copycat act and had no cor-relationship with the needles-filled strawberries: it’s believed that she has mental health issues. A new case of a needle in an apple was recently reported in Sydney, but authorities are still investigating that isolated case. Where did the needles come from? It’s unclear where and when they were inserted (they are definitely done by people: strawberries don’t grow needles in them, do they?), but farmers believed the fruits weren’t sabotaged in their farms. Some even bought metal detectors just so to detect whether there were metals in the strawberries before distributing to retailers. It’s a tricky and complex process, as the supply chain of strawberries go through a few middlemen before landing on a consumer’s house. What are the brands involved? So far, they are Berry Obsession, Berry Licious and Donnybrook brands from Queensland, and Love Berry, Delightful and Oasis brands. There has also been an online video showing truckloads of strawberries being dumped. Over in New Zealand, major supermarkets have halted the import of Australia strawberries due to the scare. What are the next steps? As the authorities in Australia work on overdrive to find the people responsible for this scare, people are advised to cut their strawberries before consuming them. How About Singapore? Are the strawberries in our supermarket affected? Thankfully, as of now, Singapore does not import any of the brands that were affected by the needles. According to AVA, “there are no imports of the implicated brands into Singapore.” Strawberry industry is big and this could affect economy The strawberry industry in Australia is worth over half a billion dollars and employs thousands of Australia. The scare has caused the prices of strawberries to drop drastically as demands plunged overnight. Let’s just hope that this would be over soon.

George Yang

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